The Celts and Woad

[eques]

Was this specific to Britons?

[Patrick Waterson]

If Picts are counted as Britons, probably yes.  I cannot think of any peoples outside the British Isles being referred to as users.

[Mick Hession]

If Picts are counted as Britons, probably yes.

As the Irish word for a Pict was a Q-Celtic form of "Briton", that's a given IMO.

I'm not aware of any Irish references (which may just be because the Romans weren't interested and the custom had died out by the time Ireland became literate), so the only documented use was in Britain.

Cheers
Mick

[aligern]

Or none of the above??
http://www.dunsgathan.net/essays/woad.htm

[Patrick Waterson]

Interesting, Roy.

Whatever Caesar actually meant by 'vitro', the custom of azure adornment appears to be British Isles specific.

Necessarily tongue-in-cheek, I cannot forbear from directing members' attention to the National Anthem of the Ancient Britons.

[Nick Harbud]

I look forward to your rendition at the next Committee meeting... 

[Erpingham]

Necessarily tongue-in-cheek, I cannot forbear from directing members' attention to the National Anthem of the Ancient Britons.

It does provide an opportunity to say "anatopic llamas" again .

[Patrick Waterson]

I look forward to your rendition at the next Committee meeting... 

I'll be selling tickets.

[dwkay57]

In her book "The Celts - Search for a Civilization", Alice Roberts refers to Pliny's writings on the custom of human sacrifices made by the druids. She then casts doubt on the accuracy of this by mentioning his descriptions of the Blemmyis who had eyes and mouths in their chests and the dog-headed people of North Africa.

She then writes "It's Pliny too, who provides us with another enduring image of the Celts: women painted from head to toe in woad (although it was probably black dye, rather than blue). There could be a grain of truth in this one though. The ancient name for Britain, Brettanike, may mean "painted", and the Roman name for the northern people of Britain, the Picts, has the same meaning."

So the answer would seem to be it is a British tradition by this stage in history even if it did happen elsewhere earlier, a bit like setting fire to the Christmas pud.

The book is a very interesting read if not from a specific wargaming perspective, but more from an understanding of what Celt means and whether our perceived understanding of that stage in history is changing.

[Erpingham]

It doesn't take a great deal of google searching to find that body decoration, either painted or tattooed, was a common Roman literary trope related to Britons, which wouldn't work if other Celtic peoples were equally painted.  That is not to say no painting but not in distinctive quantities like Britons.  Other than a short-hand for British, though, it would be harder to define the details perhaps because most writers had never actually seen the real thing -  e.g. painted or tattoed?  All over body paint like Mel Gibson or intricate patterns? Colour - sky blue, blue, black or even green all seem to be referenced.

Direct references to woad appear rare.  Perhaps one of the classicists can check Martial's Epigrams Xi 53

Although born among the woad-stained Britons, how fully has Claudia Rufina the intelligence of the Roman people!

For the words translated "woad-stained"?

[Andreas Johansson]

The original is:

Claudia caeruleis cum sit Rufina Britannis
Edita, quam Latiae pectora gentis habet!

"Woad-stained" thus translates caeruleis (nom. sg. masc. caeruleus), which basically means "blue" - it's regularly applied to the sky and to the sea - but can apparently also cover "dark" and even "green"! So no help here about what pigment the Britons used, and only a vague indication of what colour.

[Anton]

Charles-Edwards notes St Patrick seems to compare the markings on Irish Féinnid to those made with chrism on Christian converts.  We don't know what was used to make the marks so we cannot say woad but the marks themselves are interesting, pagan and likely an ancient practice.